[Comments]
Another great reform has been carried out by the Liberal Government. In future the value of the total messing allowance for sailors will remain at 10d., but they will have a smaller ration, equivalent to 6d., and will be allowed to spend the remaining 4d. in luxuries as they please. We may now expect them to participate in banquets at frequent intervals, just as if they were “Labour” M.P’s.
Addressing the Forest Gate Ratepayers’ Association on September 2nd, Councillor Duncan Best, of West Ham, declared that Mr. Will Thorne, “in order to obtain the salary given by the L.R.C., was quite willing at the general election to furl the red flag—quite willing to tuck it away and appear purely as Labour man.” But Councillor Best is late—we pointed this out long ago.
An example of the extent to which the Government is being “forced” by the existence of a ”powerful Labour party” may be gleaned from some notes by J. Ramsay MacDonald in the Belper News of August 23rd. He claims that the Fair Wages Committee was appointed on the initiative of the Labour party. After many months “pressing” the Government and “negotiating” with them, a Committee was appointed consisting of those officials whom the Labour party had accused of making the Fair Wages Clause a dead letter.
What else could he expect ? When the Labour members fight the Government instead of being so anxious to dine and drink expensive wines with its members something different may happen.
The first number of The Woman Worker has appeared. It contains letters wishing success from many Labour M.P.s, and also from H. G. Wells, George Cadbury, Chiozza Money, H. Quelch, Herbert Gladstone and other reformers.